PIWeek 20May 11 - May 17 2013

Original Homegrown Drama: The Fall BBC Northern Ireland’s new gritty psychological thriller

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Programme Information New this week

Wendy Austin will be at the new home of the Balmoral show with Talkback on BBC Radio Ulster on Wednesday, May 15 from 12 noon. She’ll be live from the Maze where she’ll be checking out the new venue, and talking to farmers about how the snow affected their business and the need for farm safety

Bikes! Cookstown 100

Tuesday, May 14, BBC One NI, 11.05pmStephen Watson (pictured) presents highlights as the local road racing season roars into action on the high speed Tyrone circuit.

Original Homegrown Drama: The Fall Page 3BBC Northern Ireland’s new gritty psychological thriller

BBC Radio Foyle launches new daily programme dedicated to culture in the north west Page 4

NW200 returns to BBC Sport NI for 2013 Page 6BBC Sport NI is once again gearing up to provide bike fans with coverage of this year’s North West 200 International road races

Cuisle Page 8Brand new six-part music and arts series

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Original Homegrown Drama: The Fall

BBC Northern Ireland’s new

gritty psychological thriller, The

Fall staring Gillian Anderson and

local actor Jamie Dornan starts

on Monday, May 13 on BBC Two

at 9pm.

In the five-part drama series made and set

in Northern Ireland, Gillian Anderson stars

as Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson

who is brought in from the London Metro-

politan Police to help catch the killer when

a murder in Belfast remains unsolved.

As Gibson travels across from London, we

are introduced to the murderer himself;

Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan). The drama

follows the police investigation uncovering

the intricate story of the lives entangled by

a series of murders both within the killers’

and the victims’ families.

BBC NI’s Director Peter Johnston says;

“The Fall is an important project for BBC

Northern Ireland. It has involved significant

financial investment and will showcase the

skills, talent and expertise of our local crea-

tive sector. We are delighted to have been

able to create a drama series of this scale

and ambition and know that it will provide

audiences with some gripping and memora-

ble television. The Fall features writing and

performances of the highest quality and re-

flects the BBC’s commitment to increasing

the volume, impact and benefits of network

programme production in Northern Ire-

land.”

Original Homegrown Drama: The Fall, Monday, May 13 on BBC Two at 9pm

The Fall, written by Allan Cubitt (The Runa-

way, Murphy’s Law, Prime Suspect) and

executive produced by BBC NI’s Head of

Drama, Stephen Wright was filmed in and

around Belfast from March to June 2012.

Allan Cubitt says: “Setting The Fall in Bel-

fast and the surrounding area was an easy

choice for me. I’ve always found Northern

Ireland a fascinating place, culturally and

geographically, and I already had a great

working relationship with Stephen Wright

and BBC NI. Having the city as a backdrop

- hopefully almost a character in itself - also

allowed me to draw on the disproportion-

ate amount of home-grown acting talent

there is. I really hope that seeing those ac-

tors - some relatively new to the screen

- working alongside someone as iconic and

potent as Gillian Anderson will make for

compelling viewing.”

The cast includes Gillian Anderson (DSI

Stella Gibson), Jamie Dornan (Paul Spec-

tor), Laura Donnelly (Sarah Kay), John Lynch

(AAC Jim Burns), Niamh McGrady (Dani

Ferrington), Gerard Jordan (Brian Stone)

and Bronagh Waugh (Sally-Ann Spector).

The Fall is a Fables Limited production in

association with Artists Studios for the

BBC with support from Northern Ireland

Screen. The series was commissioned by

Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two and

Ben Stephenson, Controller of Drama

Commissioning.

BBC Northern Ireland’s new gritty psychological thriller

Serial killer Paul Spector (Jamie Dornan) and DSI Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson)

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BBC Radio Foyle launches new daily programme dedicated to culture in the north west

BBC Radio Foyle will celebrate

Derry~Londonderry 2013 with a

new live programme dedicated to

discovering and covering all things

cultural in the north west.

Pure Culture, starting on BBC Radio Foyle

on Monday, May 6 at 10am, will see present-

ers Sarah Brett and Michael Bradley pro-

vide listeners with a front row seat at all

the cultural events taking place in the first

UK City of Culture.

This daily half-hour programme will wel-

come everyone from big celebrity perform-

ers to local people who might be turning

their hands to culture for the first time. It

will be as interested in the people painting

the stage as it will be in those appearing

on it!

Pure Culture will feature previews, re-

views, and live performance, covering the

whole cultural spectrum from high-brow to

low-key and mass appeal. The programme,

which will run until the end of 2013, will

delve into the city’s cultural past and pro-

vide local people with a platform to give

their view of events.

In short, Pure Culture will be BBC North-

ern Ireland’s home for all things City of

Culture.

BBC Northern Ireland has also created a

new website: bbc.co.uk/cityofculture to

provide an online home for all our cover-

age of the City of Culture, especially the

Pure Culture programme.

Pure Culture, BBC Radio Foyle, Mondays-Fridays at 10am from Monday, May 6bbc.co.uk/cityofculture

Michael Bradley and Sarah Brett, presenters of Pure Culture, BBC Radio Foyle’s new live programme dedi-cated to discovering and covering all things cultural in the north west. The programme begins on Monday, May 6 at 10am

Michael Bradley says: “Already 2013 has been brilliant so this new programme will give us the opportunity to look in more de-tail at what’s still to come – reviewing, pre-viewing and hearing from the artists them-selves. We’re also going to get the views of

the audiences, with instant reaction and more considered opinion.

“Listeners will also hear live music from those artists who are kind enough - and awake enough - to perform in the studio or

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at some of the venues across the city which

we will be connecting with. I really want to

hear what people are looking forward to

seeing this year – in fact we’re thinking of

having a regular feature called ‘What I’m

Looking Forward To Seeing’ – although, ad-

mittedly, we might have to come up with a

snappier title.”

Sarah Brett says: “I’m being asked to cel-

ebrate culture here every day until the

end of the year with an Undertone - now

that’s a great gig! I’m excited for our listen-

ers, too, because they’ll be getting all the

information they need to make the most

out of this year. The selection of events is

vast and we’ll try our best to bring the pick

of the bunch to people so they don’t miss

a thing.”

Larry Deeney, Editor, BBC Radio Foyle says:

“BBC Radio Foyle is honoured to host this

new programme, which will become the

spine of BBC Northern Ireland’s cover-

age in this remarkable year. The new Pure

Culture programme will live and breathe all

the cultural activity taking place here in the

north west, broadcasting live every week-

day morning. This is an unprecedented time

for the city and the north west and we are

excited at the prospect of bringing all that

colour and celebration to our listeners –

and getting them involved too.”

Pure Culture will also introduce listeners

to a new sound that they will hear during

the City of Culture year. BBC Radio Foyle

and BBC Radio Ulster will be using a new

dedicated ‘campaign sound’ which has been

produced by BBC NI’s Marketing depart-

ment who teamed up with a number of lo-

cal musicians. The new programme will be

the first to play a version of it.

Larry says: “It’s great that we have the new programme for City of Culture year on BBC Radio Foyle and it’s a nice touch for us to have this dedicated campaign sound – or what some people might call a ‘jingle’. It’s just another way of signifying the im-portance of the year. The newly composed sound has been recorded by seven great home-grown artists especially to celebrate City of Culture. And if you tune into Pure Culture on Monday, you’ll be the first to hear it. Listen out over the year and we’ll play the different versions of it whenever we can.”

The newly composed sound was recorded by a range of local artists who gave it their own unique flavour. The artists were; pian-ist Ruth McGinley, Best Boy Grip, Paul Ca-sey, Margaret Keys, Donal Doherty and the Codetta Choir, Eilidh Patterson and piper Brian Stafford. The new campaign sound has been composed to celebrate the City of Culture year and act as a ‘signpost’ to listeners around City of Culture content. It will be part of an integrated campaign that

will also see a new look onscreen for the BBC Northern Ireland brand reflecting the year.

BBC Northern Ireland is at the heart of Derry-Londonderry’s City of Culture cel-ebrations providing audiences with com-prehensive coverage of the year’s events combined with a range of original program-ming. With a line-up including documen-taries, coverage of live events and a focus on the high profile cultural celebrations, BBC Northern Ireland gives people around Northern Ireland and across the wider UK the opportunity to experience, participate and share in what this momentous year has to offer. Audiences can find out more at the website: bbc.co.uk/cityofculture

Pure Culture, BBC Radio Foyle, Mondays-Fridays at 10am from Monday, May 6. bbc.

co.uk/cityofculture

Sarah Brett and Michael Bradley, presenters of Pure Culture, BBC Radio Foyle’s new live programme dedi-cated to discovering and covering all things cultural in the north west. The programme begins on Monday, May 6 at 10am

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NW200 returns to BBC Sport NI for 2013

BBC Sport NI is once again gearing

up to provide bike fans with com-

prehensive coverage of this year’s

North West 200 International

road races and for the first time

ever it will be broadcast in High

Definition.

The event, which is now in its 84th year,

attracts bikers and fans of road racing from

all corners of the world to Northern Ire-

land’s beautiful north coast. Tens of thou-

sands of fans will line the nine mile circuit

on race day to see the best riders in the

world pit their wits against each other at

speeds approaching 200mph. There will also

be worldwide streaming of all the practice

sessions and races on bbc.co.uk/sportni

BBC Radio Ulster will have live coverage

of the practice sessions on Tuesday and

Thursday with coverage of the races live

on Thursday and Saturday all hosted by Joel

Taggart and Michael McNamee. There will

also be live reports and special features

from behind-the-scenes on BBC Newsline

throughout race week.

Shane Glynn, Editor BBC Sport NI said:

“For the first time this year we’ll be bring-

ing fans all the thrills and action from the

North West 200 in stunning HD. We’ll have

super slo-mo cameras, kerb cams, and on

boards to capture the best coverage of the

event for our audience.

“Last year’s new format was very success-

ful, and we’ll have live coverage of both

practice sessions and Thursday night’s rac-

ing on both BBC Radio Ulster and via our

online site.

BBC Sport NI is once again gearing up to provide bike fans with coverage of this year’s North West 200 International road races

Stephen Watson at the NW200

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Joel Taggart

“The most important element of our cov-

erage is team work, and we’re again looking

forward to working closely with Mervyn

and his team to provide race fans with the

best possible coverage of this year’s North

West 200.”

Thanking Shane and the full BBC NW200

team, Mervyn Whyte MBE, Technical Direc-

tor said: “The BBC team continue to deliv-

er a fantastic range of global coverage and

each year add new and creative dimensions

to their output. The high calibre produc-

tion provides an exciting mix of radio, TV

and online coverage which reaches millions

of people worldwide. Everyone at Cole-

raine and District Motor Club would like to

Michael McNamee

wholeheartedly thank Shane Glynn and the team at BBC Sport NI for their hard work and professionalism and we look forward to another first class partnership.”

Coverage of the NW 200 on BBC One NI will include the extended preview pro-gramme on Friday, May 17 at 10.35pm, and the two one-hour highlights programmes on Sunday, May 19, at 10.25pm and Mon-day, May 20 at 10.35pm, all presented by Stephen Watson and Phillip McCallen. There will also be reports and special features from behind-the-scenes on BBC Newsline throughout race week. The television coverage will be provided by Greenlight TV, and will feature up to 28

camera angles provided by trackside cam-

eras, the aerial helicopter camera and on-

board cameras.

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Cuisle

Cuisle is a brand new Irish lan-

guage music and arts series based

in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich

in the heart of Belfast’s vibrant

Gaeltacht Quarter. Starting on

Monday, May 13, on BBC Two NI

at 10pm the series showcases the

best of traditional and contempo-

rary musical talent, the visual arts

and the work of Gaelic poets and

Cuisle, Monday, May 13, BBC Two NI at 10pm

Brand new six-part music and arts series

Headline band Weeping Willow - Tóla Custy, John Mc Sherry, Pádraig Rynne and Paul Mc Sherry

literary figures from all over Ire-

land and beyond.

Hosted by Gráinne Holland and Eamonn Ó hAdhmaill, Cuisle utilises the many and var-ied spaces within the Cultúrlann building to provide unique platforms and backdrops for the series, while also going out and about to explore the broader landscape of the Gaeltacht Quarter.

Made for BBC Northern Ireland by Imagine Media, Cuisle is performance driven and

crafted to showcase the best of Gaelic cul-tural expression.

Series producer Sheila Friel says: “There is something for everyone in this new se-ries, with a broad range of music included each week from traditional to classical, pop to rock and even some blues and reggae thrown in for good measure.”

Headline acts include new trad supergroup Weeping Willow, Belfast’s own reggae band Bréag, KAN who are made up of four of

the finest, most influential artists of the

21st century traditional music scene, Dub-

lin rockers The Dirty 9’s, popular Scottish

outfit Dàimh and one of the most talked

about young breakthrough bands – The

Bonny Men.

And if music isn’t your thing there will be

featured artists talking about their motiva-

tion, inspiration and what makes them tick.

There are also readings from both estab-

lished and new poets, interviews and lots

more besides.

Director Mal Marken says: “The series will

appeal to anyone with an interest in the

arts or music. Each episode is packed with

talent; Cuisle simply affords each performer

the opportunity to shine. And they do.”

Programme one features a range of

talented musicians from these shores and

beyond, opening on the main stage with

trad heavy-weights John Mc Sherry, Pádraig

Rynne, Paul Mc Sherry and Tóla Custy with

their new ensemble – Weeping Willow.

Dublin-based Mo Hat Mo Gheansaí per-

forms ‘Seal Saol’ in the Gerard Dillon Gal-

lery. Their sound is an eclectic mix of folk,

pop and blues demonstrating their impres-

sive musicality.

Young Monaghan brothers Dónal and

Michael McCague take to the more inti-

mate ‘Cúinne’ stage area with an instrumen-

tal number from Dónal’s latest album, ‘Bits

n’ Pieces’. Dónal was recently named as

TG4’s Young Musician of the Year in 2013.

Belfast poet Gearóid Mac Lochlainn brings

a totally unique performance to Cuisle,

Presenters, Eamonn Ó hAdhmaill & Gráinne Holland

Mark Braidner and Gearóid Mac Lochlainn

where he performs his poem ‘Dúnmharú’ with steel guitar accompaniment by Mark Braidner.

This programme’s international guests are both residents of Brittany; Heikki Bourgault and Calum Stewart giving a beautiful fusion

of Breton and Scottish trad music.

Cuisle is an Imagine Media production for

BBC Northern Ireland, with support from

Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language

Broadcast Fund.

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